


Fighting (Haeyadwae)

by selkieskin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Overworking, Secret Crush, Slice of Life, Stress Relief, Supportive Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selkieskin/pseuds/selkieskin
Summary: Jungwoo has to learn all the back catalogue of choreography for the Neo City: The Origin tour, and it's starting to overwhelm him. Luckily, Lucas drops by to help.
Relationships: Kim Jungwoo & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71





	Fighting (Haeyadwae)

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this a while ago, but I heard Jungwoo's little "fighting haeyadwae!" in today's NCT2020 first livestream... I'm posting in celebration of these two being reunited again!

"It's OK, you go ahead. I'll stay here for a little while."

Jungwoo could feel the cracks beneath the surface, his own voice steady but the hurt evident in his tone. Or perhaps evident only to himself. He knew that Taeyong, for all his compassion, simply did not understand this - the man was made of sinew, and determination, and had no real concept of things just getting... too much. He clapped Jungwoo on the shoulder and left him alone.

Jungwoo stared at himself in the dance mirror, trying not to let his anxiety consume him. There were so many things he should be doing, so many things he was behind on - they were preparing for their Neo City: The Origin tour at the moment, and Jungwoo, as a late addition, was learning all their well-practiced choreography for the first time. He was grateful to the members for taking it in shifts to run through it and help him, but what he really wanted right now was for it all to just... stop.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror. Like a little lost boy, fringe in his eyes. So small against the big wide room, but with nobody there to protect him. Alone. Helpless.

He jumped as the door opened, trying to compose himself. He couldn't let any of the members see how much this was getting to him - he wanted to be a bright, happy part of their team, not someone who was always ruining everything with all these... emotions. He didn't want to cry any more.

To his relief, though, it wasn't anyone from 127. It was his friend, Lucas.

"Hey. Sorry if I'm interrupting your practice. I just passed by Taeyong and he said you'd stayed back in here, so... I came to... say hi..." Jungwoo didn't want to meet his eyes, but he knew his brows would be knitting together, knowing him inside out. "...How are you doing?"

Tears sprang unbidden to his eyes, and he furiously tried to wipe them away as suddenly Lucas was in front of him, concerned. 

"Hey, hey," he was saying, awkwardly trying to help wipe his face with his sleeve pulled over his hand. "What do you need?"

Not 'explain to me what's wrong'. No demands from Lucas on his already overtaxed energy reserves. Just a simple, kind offer of help. Honestly, this is why he made Jungwoo's heart beat faster sometimes.

"I just want…" What did he want? How could he articulate it? "I… I just want to lie on the floor, and have everything go away. I don't want to do this any more. I _can't_ do this any more. It's _too much_. I-"

He was cut off by a big bear hug, the kind that Lucas with all his long limbs was absolutely the best at. 

"I know," he was saying. "I know. Then let's... let's lie on the floor."

"What?" he exclaimed, confused.

"Come on," he said into Jungwoo's hair. "I shut the door. Let's just lie on the floor."

And he disentangled himself from Jungwoo, and arranged himself on the hard floor, looking up at him, expectantly.

Slowly and awkwardly, Jungwoo arranged himself just next to him on the floor, more because at least it was something different and easy, rather than really knowing what Lucas was planning.

"There. We've escaped," Lucas said conspiratorially. He rolled onto his side towards Jungwoo. "Rock paper scissors battle?"

"OK," Jungwoo agreed, happy at this point for anything that meant he didn't have to think. He shuffled so he was a little more on his side, and held out his fist.

"1, 2, 3, go!" Lucas called, and cackled and covered Jungwoo's hand as paper covered rock. "1, 2, 3, go!" he called again, and scissors cut Jungwoo's paper.

They must have played a hundred rounds of it, and Jungwoo felt that little buzz of electricity every time his long fingers touched his smaller hand, and little by little he started to feel a bit better.

"I think you definitely beat me," Lucas conceded eventually, and flopped back onto his back, shuffling a little closer so their heads touched, both staring up at the lights on the ceiling. They weren't stars - they felt more like the lid on a box, keeping them in this room - but Jungwoo could pretend, at least for a while. They looked up in silence, no sound but each other's soft breaths, and some distant music from a nearby room.

"I think you're amazing, you know," Lucas said at last.

"I'm really not though," Jungwoo responded, not in the right place to accept the compliment.

"No, honestly. And I know what you want to say, but just listen to me. I know that sometimes everything seems like too much. I know that, I really know that, and I can see how hard you're fighting through it." He turned his head to look at him, falling silent for a moment. "It's that," he said, determinedly. "It's that that makes you amazing. Everything else you do is amazing too, but I don't know anyone who fights the way you do. It's so cool. It's really, really cool."

Jungwoo hit him gently, flushing. "Hey, stop it-"

"Then I'm going to say it more," Lucas teased, and started mixing languages in the way he knew always made Jungwoo laugh. "You're amazing. You're 伟大, you're incredible, you're awesome, neomu 놀랄 만한, 驚人-"

He started to prod and poke him a bit too, making him squirm and giggle, and eventually he pushed Lucas off, face red and eyes shining up at his friend with gratitude and desperation.

"What I'm trying to say is-" Lucas' voice reverberated through the room as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, looking down at Jungwoo laying beside him on the floor, "you can do this. Fighting haeyadwae!" he said, making a fist.

Jungwoo sat up beside him.

He saw his reflection again in the mirror. He still looked like that little lost boy, but this time he wasn't alone. This time, he had a friend beside him.

"Fighting haeyadwae," he responded, in his softer voice. They grinned at each other and, in mutual unspoken agreement, flopped back down to the floor.


End file.
